The Left-over Penny Campaign collected unexploited economic and intellectual capital - as well as ideas and wishes - across the whole of Germany in the form of spare change from 1998-2002. Altogether, 13 tons of coins were gathered in the collection sites in public spaces on the Alexanderplatz in Berlin, in Munich (Marienplatz), Nuremberg (Königstrasse), Würzburg (Public Library), Weimar (ACC Gallery), Köpenick (FEZ), as well as thousands of private collection boxes.

1.601 ideas and wishes came in the form of letters, emails and interviews.

A part of the concept was that the participants decide what should happen with the mountain of coins. 1,087 persons applied to be a part of the decision committee. Of these, twelve were randomly selected in early April 2002 and invited to decide which of the 1.601 ideas and wishes should be realized.
  

The committee met on the two weekends in May and June of 2002 in the ACC Gallery in Weimar. After they had worked out a list of criteria together, they chose four projects to bring to realization from the idea and wish pool. In June and July of 2002, all of the collection boxes were emptied, publicly sorted and brought to the appropriate national banks for payment. Altogether over the four and one-half years, besides the hundreds of thousands who gave their spare pennies and the 1,601 "Idea Donors", approximately 500 persons actively helped the project. Many institutions, government officials, prize juries, decision makers and private citizens helped to make this project possible.

The Left-over Penny Campaign was my artistic attempt to take the responsibility "to make the future, that we want or do not want, an object of civic discourse." (Saage, Richard, 1997: Utopieforschung, eine Bilanz (Utopia Research, an Assessment), Primus Verlag)

LEV-OVER PENNY CAMPAING, 1998-2002
Germany

09-10inte2605, 09-10inie2606